


Subcon's Flames

by StrawberryCoolatta



Category: A Hat in Time (Video Game), Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, annoy snatcher apparently, bugs are human sized just for the crossover, grimm in subcon forest what will he do, more tags to be added later
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 01:13:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29038422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StrawberryCoolatta/pseuds/StrawberryCoolatta
Summary: Snatcher's newest contract asks Hat Kid to remove this weird lantern sitting in the middle of the forest. She doesn't do that, instead lighting it. And now there are strange beings in Subcon Forest that wont leave, no matter how hard Snatcher tries to get rid of them!
Comments: 53
Kudos: 86





	1. Arriving at Subcon Forest

**Author's Note:**

> Crossover of my two biggest hyperfixations... it was inevitable really. I really wanted to write something about it, so now this exists! Once again this is posted right as I go to sleep so there are probably mistakes, I apologize.

Hat Kid didn’t have any contracts left to do, but she still didn’t have her soul back. When she brought it up with the Snatcher, he just said to keep exploring the forest to find more contracts. It wasn’t so bad, every time she finished a contract she got a timepiece. So the more contracts meant the more timepieces she would recover. 

Across a broken bridge that she hadn’t explored past yet, Hat Kid spotted the twisted vines poking out of the ground. The last time she had seen them was when she had been encouraged to step inside by one of Snatcher’s minions, only to end up in a trap. This must have been what Snatcher was talking about when he said to keep exploring.

Hat Kid stepped inside of the circle, startling when the vines suddenly sprang up, trapping her.

“AHAHAHAHA! FOOOOOOOOL!!!!” yelled the familiar voice of the Snatcher after Hat Kid had been transported to his pocket dimension. This time Hat Kid wasn’t so scared of him, she had seen his whole entrance at least three times by now.

“YOU’VE STEPPED INTO MY FOREST, AND NOW- wait a minute.” Snatcher’s wide grin abruptly faltered when he noticed who was standing in front of him. “It’s you? Again? You should really know by now not to step into my traps, kid.”

Hey! He was the one who hinted at getting more contracts by stepping into his traps! And now he was acting like she was just an annoyance.

Well, she was an annoyance to him. She was trying her best to be.

“As long as you’re here, we might as well extend our business endeavours!” Snatcher then said, his grin returning. “I have two lovely contracts for you to choose from!”

Hat Kid stepped up to the one on the left first, examining it. A contract to retrieve something from a manor? That looked pretty cool, but she wanted to look at the other one before picking. The second contract was titled “Check out that weird lantern that’s sitting in the forest and get rid of it”, with pictures of said weird lantern sitting in the forest. Actually that one looked neat as well! She was sure the manor would be open even if she didn’t sign the contract, so she would choose the second!

“Awesome!” Hat Kid whispered to herself as she signed her name. Snatcher’s wax seal automatically appeared after, and the contract then disappeared in a poof of smoke.

“Picking the easy ones, huh? Now you’re leaving all the difficult ones for the other contractors! How could you!” Snatcher grinned. “Better hop to it!”

He dove into the ground, dropping her back onto the forest floor. Hat Kid rolled her eyes, he would have said that even if she picked the other one. Alright, where was this weird lantern? She took out the contract that had magically appeared in her pockets, taking a look at the photos. It seemed to be located right near the burning part of the forest, in the middle of one of those stone circles. Ugh, she hoped it wasn’t the one near the headless statue, those things were a pain to deal with.

The burning forest wasn’t that far away, but Hat Kid took out her scooter anyway, veering off the path and into the grass. She could smell the burning before she even saw it, hitting the breaks on her scooter as soon as she reached the edge. 

There it was. The torch wasn’t directly in the burning forest itself, but a little ways past it. How appropriate that a lantern was located right next to a forest on fire! It was just asking to be lit! This sure was a weird lantern though, at the bottom was what looked like a pile of coals. Oh Hat Kid really wanted to light it now. But the contract said she had to get rid of it.

She tried simply taking the lantern with her, but it appeared to be stuck to the ground! No matter how hard she tried, it wouldn’t budge. Trying to break it didn’t work either, her umbrella didn’t do any damage at all. 

“Well there isn’t really anything else to do with it…” Hat Kid said out loud. She would light it! Maybe then it would move. That logic didn’t really make sense, but it didn’t need to. She just wanted an excuse to light it.

Striking the coals with her umbrella would never work, her umbrella wasn’t built for that! Could coals be lit with the fire from the forest? Hat Kid would find out. She grabbed a stick off the ground, and jogged over to one of the burning trees, lighting the stick on fire. Snatcher’s minions who were nearby were watching with interest. 

“Yes.. burn!” Hat Kid laughed as she stuck the stick into the coals. It instantly lit up with a loud “FWOOSH”, the fire somehow spreading to the lantern as well. The last thing Hat Kid expected to hear after that was creepy sounding accordion music before the flame died down. 

“Weird,” Hat shrugged, and then tried to move the torch again. It still didn’t budge. Maybe she should go tell Snatcher about this.

“Hey Snatcher, I tried doing your dumb contract but it didn’t work,” Hat Kid announced at the entrance of Snatcher’s tree.

“Aw, was it too tough for you? You’re always welcome to give up and then I can eat your soul!” Snatcher replied.

“No, the lantern just won’t move,” Hat Kid said, unphased by Snatcher’s threats. “I tried lighting it but-”

“You lit it?” Snatcher said, setting down his book. “Kiddo, what part of ‘remove the lantern’ did you not understand?”

“Well it wouldn’t move!” Hat Kid complained. “So I tried lighting it to see if that would make it move!”

“That doesn’t even make any sense!!!”

“Hey uh- boss?” called out another voice.

Hat Kid and Snatcher paused in their arguing, both turning to see one of the minions standing nervously in front of them. 

“What is it?” Snatcher asked.

“Something weird happened in the village,” they replied. “I think you should go take a look at it yourself.”

“Fine,” Snatcher said, picking up the minion with one hand and Hat Kid with the other. He then teleported to the middle of Subcon village, dropping Hat Kid to the ground.

“Don’t do that!” Hat Kid grumbled, fixing her hat. “At least warn me before you teleport!”

“No,” Snatcher said, and then turned his attention back to the minion. “Alright, what did you want me to see? This better not be a waste of my time!”

“Look right there,” they pointed. Hat Kid could see a small crowd of dwellers and minions gathered at the edge of the village. They were looking at a pair of red tents- those certainly hadn’t been there before. Outside of the tents were two strange looking creatures, Hat Kid hadn’t seen anything like them before, and she had explored all over this planet! Faint accordion music came from the bigger tent.

“Oh cool! What’s that?” Hat Kid said, running forward. “Those torches out front look similar to the one I lit!”

“I’d say these are foolish campers looking to test their bravery, but I don’t think that’s quite right,” Snatcher said, floating behind her. “Say, have any of you minions gone inside?”

“Yeah, I tried to,” said one of them. Hat Kid recognized them from the shiny jewelry (most likely stolen) that they wore. “Me and a couple others went in together, but some big guy said we shouldn’t go further in. We weren’t supposed to be there or something, we weren’t the summoner or whatever.”

“Aw what are these guys?” Hat Kid said, looking at the weird creatures sitting outside. “A giraffe? I saw a picture of one once.”

“I have never seen a real giraffe in my life before, even when I went outside of the forest,” the same minion said. “It’s probably a giraffe.”

“Well I’m gonna go in!” Hat Kid announced. 

“Be my guest, kiddo! Try not to die!” Snatcher cheerfully said, pushing her in the direction of the tents. “This is probably your fault anyway!”

“Is not!” Hat Kid protested, but he was probably right. This likely had something to do with the torch she messed with. Shoving Snatcher away, she entered the bigger tent.

The accordion music was getting louder, and Hat Kid saw its source. It was a man dressed in grey and red, a mask covering his face. Like she expected, he was playing an accordion. At least she thought it was an accordion. Was an accordion supposed to have legs? This must have been the guy the minion was talking about.

“Mrmm. You called us?” he asked as Hat Kid walked up to him. “Speak to Master.”

“I don’t know, did I call you? I don’t even know who you are,” Hat Kid responded. “What’s your name?”

“The Nightmare Lantern. Didn’t you light it?” he said.

“The what? Also you didn’t answer my question.”

“The torch in the middle of this dead kingdom. You lit it. And my name is Brumm, if you really want to know so badly.”

“Oh.” So that’s what it was. “How was I supposed to know that it would summon you?”

Brumm didn’t respond, and just kept playing his accordion. It seemed like she wouldn’t be getting anything else out of him. So she kept going. Time to go see whoever Brumm mentioned before.

The room at the end of the hallway (which Hat Kid now realized was impossible considering the size of the tent outside) was dimly lit by a few lanterns hanging from the ceiling. What was with these guys and lanterns??? It was quiet aside from Brumm’s accordion, until she reached the center of the room, and the music stopped. 

Spotlights spun around the area, and a drumroll accompanied a different accordion tune. Hat Kid took out her umbrella, she was way too used to people trying to attack her, especially if they had a dramatic entrance! But usually they were fine at first, only betraying her at the end. 

There was a loud sound as a tall man teleported in front of her, Hat Kid nearly instinctively swinging her umbrella at him.

“So it was you who called us,” he said, turning to look down at her. After hearing his voice, Hat Kid resisted the urge to get him a glass of water. He sounded like he was in pain.

“Yeah, and I didn’t even do it on purpose!” Hat Kid said. “I just wanted to see if something cool would happen! And I guess it kind of did, this place is pretty cool.”

“Hm, a summoner who didn’t even know she would be taking part in the ritual? This isn’t the first time something like this has happened,” the man said. “Maybe we should start attaching instruction manuals to the lantern.”

Was that a joke? Or was he serious?

“Well met, my friend, well met,” he continued. “I am Grimm, master of this troupe. What a fine stage this is, a kingdom destroyed by ice and shadow. A wonderful earth for which the ritual will take place!”

“Ritual?” This was the second time he had mentioned that.

“Of course!” Grimm said. “When you lit the lantern, a contract was written in scarlet fire, and now your role is cast.”

“Hey! I’m the only one with contracts around here!” yelled Snatcher. Hat Kid jumped, she had no idea he was right there the whole time, invisible! She didn’t know he could do that. Makes sense though. “Who do you think you are, going around recruiting MY contractors in MY forest?”

“Ah, I was wondering when you would show yourself,” Grimm said calmly. “It's rare for one of the dead kingdom’s old rulers to be present for the ritual.”

Snatcher went still as soon as Grimm said that. What did he mean by that?

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Snatcher said after a moment. “But like I said, you cannot go stealing my contractors! She already gave her soul to me!”

“Yes I can,” Grimm responded. “I just did it right now. She’s part of the ritual whether you like it or not. And I’m not after her soul. Anyway, where were we?”

“No! I’m not just going to sit idly by while you weird bugs carry out some weird ritual in the middle of my forest!”

Ohhhh that's what they were. Bugs! Hat Kid was surprised she hadn’t figured that out, but these guys were three times the size of her, which wasn’t normal for bugs. Hey if they were bugs, then what did that mean for the cockroaches she found in Mafia Town? Best not to think about it.

“For the ritual to commence, some illumination is required,” Grimm continued to say, as if Snatcher hadn’t even spoken. He reached inside of his cloak (or was it wings?) and pulled out a circular item, handing it to Hat Kid. It looked like a badge. Maybe she could stick it on her hat? She’d have to try it out. “Across the land my kin now spread, collecting the flames. However it doesn’t seem to just be contained inside of this small kingdom, but in other lands as well.”

“Then does that mean the whole planet is a dead kingdom?” Hat kid asked.

“Seek my kin, claim the flame, and then return to me. Together, marvels shall be achieved!”

Hat Kid wasn’t surprised he avoided the question. She was all too used to that by now.

“Hello? I’m right here! I can easily destroy you and your troupe in a matter of seconds!” Snatcher said, growing more agitated. “Kiddo, you can’t really be thinking of helping them!”

“No you can’t. If you even try, the seals on these tents will prevent that,” Grimm said. This was all quite entertaining to Hat Kid. “Anyway, you shall not travel alone for this journey. My child will guide you to the flames and gather them within itself. Only with the child can you find these flames.”

“Okay, I think I’ve got all that… sounds cool!” Hat Kid said. 

“I wish you the best of luck, summoner.”

And with that, Grimm disappeared in a flash of red.

“Who does he think he is, marching right into my forest and acting like he owns the place?” Snatcher muttered angrily to himself. Hat Kid walked towards the exit. Snatcher could sort all that out on his own, right now she had a cool new badge to check out!

“So what happened?” asked the same minion from before, the one with the jewelry, as she left the tent.

“A tall bug gave me this cool badge and now I need to collect flames,” Hat Kid replied, showing off the badge. “Isn’t it neat?”

“Where’s the boss?”

‘Oh he got super annoyed, it was really funny,” Hat Kid giggled. “I’m sure he’ll show up eventually!”

She jogged away from the now much smaller crowd, and pinned the badge to her hat. A small, flying creature appeared out of thin air, chirping softy,

Oh. My. God. It was so cute!!!!!! It looked like a little baby Grimm!

“Aw! Aren’t you adorable!” Hat Kid cooed at the creature. “So cute!”

“Nyeh,” responded the creature. It couldn’t talk? Well, it was just a little baby after all!

“So your dad said you would lead me to the flames? Is that true?” she asked, despite knowing she wouldn’t get a response. “I can go back up to the spaceship and maybe you’d be able to show me where to go if we use the telescope!”

The creature chirped. 

“I’m taking that as a yes! Lets go!”


	2. Mafia Town

“Rumbi, meet the newest member of the crew! The Grimmchild!” Hat Kid announced, crouching down next to the little vacuum. “At least I think it’s name is Grimmchild. It’s what the badge is labeled. Actually, I might call it Grimm Jr. as well!”

Rumbi beeped. It was all he could do. 

“Thank you for giving it a warm welcome!” Hat Kid said, patting Rumbi. “Now, off to find these flames!”

She supposed the best place to start would be Mafia Town. It wasn’t that big, and she knew her way around by now. She climbed up the ladder, and entered the kitchen.

“So if you’re with me, I should be able to find the flames,” Hat Kid said, and then looked into the telescope. Sure enough, there was an image of the flame marked on the planet, right in the middle of Mafia Town. “Cool!”

Within moments, Hat Kid had beamed down to the middle of Mafia Town. There was still that golden vault she had to check out, but first she had to get the flame. Usually when there was something she had to find, the Mafia Boss’s map badge could help her. She looked up, and already saw an arrow above her head. Maybe this is what Grimm meant when he said the child would guide her to the flames! 

Hat Kid switched to her sprint hat, and started running in the direction of the arrow, the child following behind her. Eventually it led her all the way up to the planetarium. Hat Kid still wished she could go inside, what could even be in there? But that was a mystery for another day. The arrow kept pointing up. Guess it was all the way up near the Mafia HQ. Good, she always loved riding in the cannons! She hopped in, the cannon sending her flying up to the HQ. 

Wait. Where was the baby? Had she left it behind? She peered over the edge of the platform, not seeing anything.

_Fwip!_

The child was behind her now.

“Oh can you teleport too?” she wondered out loud. “That’s so awesome! Snatcher can teleport too! And I have a sneaking suspicion the Conductor can do the same.”

Grimmchild squeaked in response.

“I haven’t told you about the Conductor, have I?” Hat Kid continued. “Or Snatcher, I don’t think you’ve properly met him. You were inside of the badge or whatever.”

As the Grimmchild followed behind, Hat Kid began telling it about the people she had met on this planet. In fact, they might even be visiting them if the flames were nearby! She stopped talking when she got to the back of the building and saw a torch. A flame! Okay, so all she had to do was take it and-

A small flying being suddenly appeared, grabbing the torch and giggling. It disappeared, its laughter still ringing out. Woah! What was that! The thing appeared again, and Hat Kid got a better look at it. It was a little creature wearing a striped mask, identical to the pattern on Grimmchild’s badge. It giggled again, and shot slow moving balls of fire in her direction. Oh so this was a fight then! She could do that easily. 

“You’re on!” Hat Kid called out, taking out her umbrella. The little thing was difficult to catch, but after a few minutes (and a few burns), she got a couple hits in. This was fun! Although would Grimm sending her somewhere to fight count as a betrayal? She sure hoped not.

Eventually she landed the final blow, the creature screaming before bursting into bits of flame, which were then subsequently absorbed by the Grimmchild. Was it dead? It had just disappeared, and had dropped the torch. 

“So is that how you eat or something?” Hat Kid said, turning to look at the child. “How many more times do I have to do this? Twice more, right?”

That seemed about right. Now time to check out that vault before she left.

“Hi Cooking Cat!” Hat Kid said as she beamed back aboard the ship, a new timepiece in hand.

“Hey there!” Cooking Cat said. “I’m almost done cooking dinner and- hey uh. What do you have there?”

“A timepiece,” Hat Kid responded, holding it out.

“No, I meant the little flying thing behind you.”

“Oh!” Hat Kid plucked the Grimmchild out of the air, holding it gently like a hamburger. “This is Grimmchild, or Grimm Jr. I got it from a goth bug in the haunted forest.”

“Wow! Very cool!” Cooking Cat said. “Should I throw something on the stove for it as well?”

“I don’t know, the only thing I’ve seen it eat so far is flames. Maybe something spicy?” Hat Kid guessed. She didn’t even know what regular babies ate, much less this one.

“Alrighty then!” Cooking Cat said, turning back to the stove.

“I’ll be back soon! I’m gonna be in my room for now,” Hat Kid said, leaving the kitchen. She knew she wouldn’t have enough time to get another flame, with dinner almost being on the stove and all, so she could hang out in her room for the time being, and even update her diary.

“Hmm… today I accidentally summoned a group of bugs who want me to participate in this weird ritual of theirs. Snatcher got pretty upset when he found out!” Hat Kid said out loud as she wrote. “Grimm, the leader, gave me his kid to babysit and collect flames with. I don’t really know what's happening, but the baby is really cute! It eats fire.”

There! That was good. She closed the diary, and jumped up into the pillows. The Grimmchild hadn’t followed her down, and it was instead perched on the diving board, watching her.

“You can swim in the pillows too if you want,” Hat kid offered. “It’s fun! Although you might be a bit too tiny right now.”

It didn’t go into the pillows, instead yawning and curling up, closing its eyes. Oh wow, this was too cute! But it couldn’t be that comfortable sleeping there, so Hat Kid picked it up, carrying it to her bed and placing it softly onto the pillows. Now would be a good time to check out her backpack and the contracts. Maybe even Grimm’s contract would be there. 

There wasn’t a contract from Grimm, but there was something new. A little scarlet booklet that Hat Kid didn’t recognize. She opened it, and saw a picture of the thing she had fought earlier. So it was called a Grimmkin Novice then? There was something written underneath as well.

“Shadows dream of endless fire, flames devour and embers swoop,” Hat Kid read. “One will light the Nightmare Lantern, call and serve in Grimm’s dread Troupe.”

What a weird poem.

“Hey kid, dinner is finished!” Cooking Cat called from the entrance to Hat Kid’s room. “I’ve already brought some to the owls, and the Mafia Boss? I still don’t think he can eat.”

“On my way!” Hat Kid said, picking up Grimmchild, waking it up. “Sorry I woke you up Grimm Jr, but we need to go eat right now.”

She then ran off in the direction of the kitchen, already hungry. Hat Kid planned to gather the next two flames afterwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No hunter's journal? No problem. Grimm has you covered. (I just needed a way for hat kid to find out the names of the grimmkin, because how else is she supposed to know?)


	3. Alpine Skylines and Subcon Again

“Are you ready to go to Alpine Skylines?” Hat Kid asked. It was the evening now (if there even was a concept of evening in space), and Hat Kid had spotted that the next flame was at the Lava Cake. “I think you’ll like it there. Especially since you can fly.”

She beamed both her and the Grimmchild down to the entrance to the Lava Peak. She had already scaled it once before, so it wouldn’t be too tough to do again. There were still some time pieces left in Alpine Skylines, but she would have to wait until later to get those. One was on the windmill off in the distance, and she was afraid if she went to the top, Grimmchild might get blown away from the strong winds!

“That over there is the Lava Cake,” Hat Kid pointed. “You can only get there by using this zipline. The whole thing is made of Lava! I’m surprised anyone else but me can stand it. But the Mafia were also fine when their town got flooded with lava… but that's another story.”

She hooked onto the zipline with her umbrella, launching forward. At first she was worried about the child’s ability to keep up, but when she heard it continuously teleporting behind her, she relaxed.

She could already feel the heat from the Lava Cake as soon as she landed. It was made of fire after all. Hey, speaking of fire…

“I wonder if you’d actually be able to eat the Lava Cake?” Hat kid said. “Since I did see you absorb that fire earlier.”

Even though it would be cool to test it out, Hat Kid didn’t want to risk it. Alright, where was this new torch? On top of that big knife? That didn’t seem so hard to get to. 

Even though Hat Kid had done this climb once before, she still made the occasional slip up here and there, burning herself a couple times. Who even installed the rotating fire beams here anyway? Who thought that was a good idea! Grimmchild didn’t have any problem, as it stayed flying above the lava and easily dodged any fireballs.

At last she reached the torch, balancing carefully on the knife. This time she was ready when the Grimmkin suddenly appeared, bracing herself for a fight. This one would be a bit more difficult thanks to the environmental hazards. Maybe if she was lucky, the Grimmkin would fall into the lava… no, it would probably be fine. This was probably another creature made of fire or whatever. 

The Grimmchild watched her fight, loudly chirping whenever she slipped.

“You know, I really wish you were able to help somehow!” she called out, dodging a fireball coming her way. It wasn’t that the Grimmkin was a particularly tough enemy, but that the fight was taking forever!

“Finally!” Hat Kid exclaimed as it burst into a pile of flames, the child quickly absorbing it. “Let's get back home!”

After making sure she was standing on a safe platform, Hat Kid transported herself and the child back up to the ship.

“Wow, I really need to get better at not falling into lava, huh?” she said, sitting down against the basement wall. “Good thing that little guy dropped a lot of heart pons.”

“Nyeh,” the child chirped in response. 

“I’m going to go to sleep. Then I’ll get the next flame in the morning,” Hat Kid announced, standing back up. “The morning according to me. I have no idea what the schedule of that planet is still.”

Grimmchild appeared to be sleepy as well (even though it had just been napping earlier! Babies were just like that, she guessed) because it decided to curl up on top of her hat, closing its eyes.

“Aw! Hang on before you fall asleep though, I need to use the hookshot to get out of here first,” Hat Kid told it before doing exactly that. It didn’t fall off, so she assumed it had listened. Next time maybe it could fall asleep inside of her hat… that would be even cuter!

Hat Kid woke up the next morning not feeling refreshed at all, but that was normal for her. She had since turned off the ship alarm ever since she got stuck. It would just be a waste of battery, and it was annoying! She rolled out of the bed, putting her hat on. 

“Oh, good morning,” she muttered sleepily after she noticed that the Grimmchild was lying at the foot of her bed. It was awake as well, ready for a new day of collecting flames! 

Hat Kid would have loved to stop by the metro since the food there was so good and she was already hungry, but there didn’t seem to be any flames there and she didn’t feel like gathering another time piece only for it to be taken away. All she even got in return were those weird paper things- at least it made a fun leaf pile. So instead she just got something to eat from the fridge.

The next flame was in Subcon Forest! Which was perfect, since she knew she had to go see Grimm after getting all three flames. 

Once they were both in Subcon Forest again, Hat Kid took another look at the pictures. Just like with the time rifts, there were photos to tell her where each flame was. This one was in that weird part of Subcon where everything was floating. It was cool there! But the giant smashed timepiece made her feel uneasy- where had it even come from? She doubted she would ever find out the answer.

“On top of that rock all the way up there?” she said once she spotted the torch. “Really?”

Equipping her hover badge just in case, Hat Kid climbed up the floating rocks. She had already gotten the token up there, so all there was up there now was the torch. Like she expected, the Grimmkin Novice appeared as soon as she got close, giggling. 

“Alright, last one!” she said confidently. “Bring it on!”

And that it did, diving at her and knocking her off of the rock. 

“Nice job, kiddo!”

Oh great. Snatcher was here too.

The Grimmkin had followed her down, still attacking. Ignoring Snatcher for now, she focused on the fight in front of her.

“Ooh, you almost got it there!” Snatcher called each time she missed a hit. “Oh ouch! That looked like it hurt!”

Now she definitely had to get this Grimmkin as fast as possible, Snatcher would never stop teasing her about it if she didn’t! And he would be SO annoying.

“Wow kiddo! You did it!” Snatcher said once the Grimmkin had burst into flames, sounding disappointed. “But don’t forget, you still have _my_ contracts to complete!”

“No I don’t,” Hat Kid said.

“You sure do! Remember that the contract was to get rid of that lantern and it’s still there! So I still have your soul!” he gleefully taunted. 

“Well then what am I supposed to do?” she complained.

“Find a way to get rid of it! Not my problem if you can’t figure out how!”

Hat Kid rolled her eyes, walking off in the other direction. She would deal with that later. Right now she needed to visit Grimm.

“Hi Brumm,” Hat Kid said on the way in, the child following behind her. The accordion player gave a quick nod to acknowledge her presence. 

“Very good… I can feel the warmth of the flame you’ve gathered,” Grimm said after he appeared in a flash of red. “A masterful opening act! The air hums with excitement! Dear child, you’ve done so well! Let your flame burn even brighter!”

Grimm snapped his fingers, and in an instant, the Grimmchild had changed. It was bigger now, and resembled its father even more now. What did he mean by “dear child, you’ve done so well,” Hat Kid did all the work, the Grimmchild just floated around being cute! Oh well, this wasn’t the first time Hat Kid had barely received any credit for what she had done.

“Beautiful, yes. The child has grown from idle youth to deadly companion. No doubt that their help may be needed in this land!” Grimm continued. “Our dance continues as well, there are more flames you must seek, and once those flames are gathered, return here to the stage and our dance will begin!”

Was he talking about a fight? Well at least he was being honest, unlike some other people Hat Kid knew. And then he was gone again. More flames? If it was as easy as the last three, that wouldn’t be a problem. 

Hat Kid hadn’t even taken more than three steps outside of the tent when twisted vines shot up around her and the area went purple as she was transported to Snatcher’s pocket dimension again.

“AHAHAHAHA!! FOOOOO- oh come on!” Snatcher began before noticing who he had trapped. “I was hoping to catch one of those troupe members! But it’s you? Again?”

It sure was her! But before Hat Kid could say or do anything, Grimmchild hissed, spitting a ball of fire directly at Snatcher.

Now, Snatcher was a ghost, so it would not hurt him at all. But that didn’t stop him from staring at the child in disbelief as it spat fire after fire at him.

“Uh. Call your little pet off, kiddo!” Snatcher said. “This may not hurt but it sure is annoying!”

Hat Kid just shrugged. She didn’t know how to do that.

“Just take off the badge or whatever! I don’t know!” Snatcher said, sounding more agitated now.

“But why? I like having it around!” Hat Kid said, grinning. 

“Ugh! Fine! Let the little pest keep spitting at me! But now that you’re here, you better sign another contract!” Snatcher said. Hat Kid could tell he was trying not to sound too annoyed by the Grimmchild. He was failing.

There was only one contract left. It was the manor one! Cool, she would finally get to explore that place. She signed her name, Snatcher disappearing immediately after to avoid the Grimmchild’s fire.

“That was pretty funny,” Hat Kid laughed. “I hope you do that everytime we see him.”

As long as she was still in Subcon Forest, she might as well get this contract out of the way. The manor shouldn’t take that long!


	4. The Manor

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is the longest chapter of anything I've ever written. Yet copy pasting it here makes it seem like it's a one minute read. Also I'm not tagging Vanessa as a character because all she even does in this fic is walk around and be scary.

“The manor is this way!” the minion on the bridge cheerfully called. “You can’t miss it!”

Hat Kid squinted across the broken bridge, spotting snow and ice. Well that sure was a huge contrast from the rest of the forest. Once she had lept across the gap, she switched to her ice hat. Not because she needed to turn into an ice statue or anything, but because it was freezing! She wished she had a jacket. 

“I could really use one of those flames now,” she shivered, walking up to the purple wall blocking the way. There was another minion there, it was the one with all of the jewelry again.

“This way to the manor!” he said. 

“Yeah, I can tell,” Hat Kid said, looking at the abundance of ‘keep out’ signs. She hit the bell, the dweller popping out dizzily. She felt bad about continuously ringing the bell, but she had to do it! There was no other way past this wall!

Oh wait. She had her dweller mask. Oops. 

Hat Kid continued through the icy terrain, all throughout wondering why it was so isolated from the rest of the forest. An uneasy feeling started to grow as she walked through the gate, trying not to slip on the frozen ground beneath her. She could see the manor up ahead. She didn’t know if the lights in the windows made it better or worse.

Approaching the front doors, Hat Kid yanked on the handles, giving the door a swift kick when it wouldn’t budge.

“It’s stuck,” she muttered angrily. She guessed she would have to go find another entrance. Hey, why were there even heart pons at the entrance? It’s not like anything around here could have hurt her, aside from the explosive apples she had used along the way. 

Suddenly, Grimmchild screeched, diving at Hat Kid’s head.

“What? What is it- AAGH!” Hat Kid saw at once what it was so concerned about. The two statues she had passed by at the entrance were moving. And running straight towards her. Faster than she could run normally. More quickly than she had ever before, Hat Kid switched to her sprint hat, and took off running, the Grimmchild following her close behind. She could hear the stomps of the heavy statues catching up to her, but she didn’t dare turn around.

Finally, she reached the back of the manor, throwing herself against the railing, exhausted from running that fast.

“Do you think we lost it?” she said, out of breath. She didn’t hear the statues following her, so she assumed that was a yes. “Let’s not wait around and find out.”

The child chirped in agreement, now hovering closer to Hat Kid’s head. She jumped over the railing, landing shin deep in the snow. It was even deeper behind the manor than in front. Spotting cellar doors, she curiously walked closer. Hat Kid jumped backwards with a yelp as they violently swung open, falling into the snow. Great, now she was even colder!

“I guess we better go in,” she said nervously, taking a hesitant step down the stairs.

The cellar was filled with knee deep water, each step making a sloshing sound. It was gross. Hat Kid was going to freeze to death if the environment kept being like this! That’s probably why Snatcher sent her here. Well she would show him by coming back perfectly fine! If she didn’t catch a cold, that is. A little bit down the wall were some chains with flecks of green. She wondered what those were from.

“Hey, newbie!” One of the minions- the same one from the entrance -had walked in behind her. He sounded scared. “The boss told me to remind you that you signed that paper about not using hats in the manor! Yeah. Don’t use them. Thanks.”

She hadn’t done that! Ugh, that Snatcher must have put the writing in really small print somewhere on the contract! Of course he would pull something like that.

“Uh… good luck!” the minion said nervously, fiddling with the bracelet on his wrist. “Bye!”

He ran away faster than she had ever seen one of the minions run. This was really giving her a bad feeling about this place. He said no hats though, right? What about masks? She switched to her dweller mask, trying it out. It did work! Loophole found! Wait, what was that over on the wall by the chains?

She got closer, activating her mask again. There was a silhouette of a man who looked like he had been chained up there.

Ah. Moving on!

She pushed open the door to her right first, as the one to the left was locked. And there was the key, resting on top of the shelf. She didn’t even have to say anything for the Grimmchild to fly and grab the key bringing it to her.

“Thank you!” Hat Kid said, delighted with the help. At least she wouldn’t be going through this place alone.

Relieved to be out of the water, Hat Kid unlocked the door, climbing up the stairs. It looked like a normal manor… except for the ice statues decorating the place. She examined the closest one. It looked very lifelike. Almost too lifelike. She had decided already that she hated it here.

Hat Kid continued to walk down the hallway, the Grimmchild softly chirping behind her. Even it was quieter than normal.

“WHO'S THERE?”

Hat Kid shrieked and fell backwards as a loud voice yelled from the other room, lightning illuminating the hallway. Thunder boomed (Hat Kid didn’t even know there could be thunder and lightning in a blizzard!), and she crawled backwards fearfully as the door swung open.

“WHO DARES ENTER MY HOME?” yelled the voice again, and this time Hat Kid saw the source. A hunched over figure draped in shadows, was coming through the doorway, and Hat Kid could swear she felt her heart stop as soon as she locked her piercing red eyes with hers.

Then it began sprinting towards her faster than Hat Kid could even get up.

Hat Kid screamed, grabbing the Grimmchild out of the air and crashing into the closest door, tumbling through the doorway and slamming the door shut behind her. Still holding onto the child, she dived for cover under the first big object she saw- a grand piano.

Both her and the Grimmchild didn’t make a sound, Hat Kid holding it tightly to her chest. It was very warm, almost as if Hat Kid had her own heater with her. But it was still shivering, also scared.

“It’s okay,” Hat Kid whispered after a few minutes, crawling out from under the piano. “I don’t think she’s following us anymore.”

Hat Kid immediately wished she could take back what she said, freezing when she heard the same voice calling out to her from beyond the door.

“I know you’re there, tracking dirt into my home…” she said, Hat Kid seeing her shadow pass under the door. “Why don’t you join me for tea?”

Nervously sitting down at the piano bench, Hat Kid took out the contract, double checking what she had to do. So this was Queen Vanessa? That thing out there? She really hoped she wouldn’t be seeing more of her up close.

Carefully taking each step, Hat Kid traversed through more of the room. That dweller ice sculpture… was it perhaps not even a sculpture, but a real dweller, now frozen? Hat Kid didn’t want to think about it. Nearby was a key stuck inside of a book, just out of reach.

“Can you-” Hat Kid started to say before the Grimmchild flew up and tried to yank out the key. It was stuck in there, and the child couldn’t get it out. “Hmm. Maybe we can find some way to loosen it a bit? I’ll keep looking around.”

The piano room was connected to a kitchen, and Hat Kid cautiously opened the fridge, finding a key inside.

“Well that’s just stupid,” Hat Kid murmered. “Who puts a key inside of a fridge?”

She took the key, remembering the keyhole in the piano. Maybe it would go there? She tried it, and sure enough, it fit! The top of the piano clicked open. Hat Kid looked up at the pons on top of the piano, and then back to the piano. Did she have to…jump on it? It was worth a shot.

Hat Kid cringed as the piano made a loud sound, but now the key was falling halfway out of the book. That was good! What wasn’t so good was the sound of the kitchen door opening. 

“I know you’re in there somewhere…” said the icy cold voice of the Queen. The Grimmchild dove back into Hat Kid’s arms as she crawled underneath the piano, hoping it was a safe hiding spot.

The air turned dark and foreboding as Hat Kid heard the footsteps of the Queen enter the room. She watched her go by, not moving an inch. Hat Kid could barely even see now, Queen Vanessa’s terrifying aura was just that strong.

“Come out, come out,” the Queen sang. “I hear the garden is looking beautiful today. Wouldn’t you like to see it?”

The Grimmchild hissed softly, stirring in Hat Kid’s arms. She could tell it wanted to attack, but she was sure it wouldn’t be a good idea right now. For now, they really needed to stay hidden. 

Hat Kid breathed a sigh of relief when the Queen left, crawling out from her hiding spot. 

“That was the scariest pecking thing I’ve ever seen,” she said, and then Grimmchild immediately flew over to the key, yanking it out of the book. The book fell to the ground, and Hat Kid swore it was the loudest sound a book had ever made.

“I hear you!” yelled Queen Vannessa, and Hat Kid could hear her coming closer.

“Go go go!” she shrieked, running towards the door and back into the hallway, the Grimmchild flying ahead of her. Was this key for the manor exit? Could she get out? Hat Kid ran towards where the front doors were supposed to be, but to her dismay, there was nothing there! No doors! Just a blank wall! And she could hear the piano room door opening. Oh no. This was bad.

“Nyeh!” Grimmchild squeaked, hovering over by another door, further down the hall. It had a lock on it. This had to be what the key was for! Hat Kid ran over, and sure enough, the key fit! Not wasting another second, she went through.

There were more ice statues in the next room, but also a stairway leading up. Hat Kid didn’t like that she was going deeper into the manor, but there wasn’t another way.

The upstairs was even worse, more statues decorating the hall and claw marks tearing the wallpaper. There was a painting on the wall of a man and a woman, the man’s face slashed violently. Could this be the Queen? And who was the man?

Hat Kid went into the next room. It was a bedroom, and above the bed was a key. She needed that, didn’t she. Good thing she had Grimmchild with her to get it! No need for any complicated schemes involving balloons! But then she spotted a diary sitting on the nightstand. Even though her life may be in peril, Hat Kid wasn’t about to pass up a chance to snoop through someone’s diary!

She sat down on the edge of the bed, opening up the diary. She knew she should be trying to get out of the manor as fast as possible, but she felt safer with Grimmchild standing watch, perched on top of her hat.

Wow. This lady sure was nuts. Her whole diary was talking about a prince and how much she missed him. The whole thing sounded a bit melodramatic. There were a few more notes lying around the room that Hat Kid read as well. This Queen really was jealous of everything. Even bacon!!! Bacon!!!!! The most recent note said she didn’t let her prince eat bacon because he loved it too much! 

“You can get the key now if you want,” Hat Kid told the child, who then flew up and grabbed it. It was as easy as that… until Hat Kid heard the Queen outside in the hallway. Uh oh.

She walked into the next room, which was a nursery. The rocking horse was still moving. Well that totally wasn’t creepy at all! Hat Kid spotted another note on the table, and quickly read it. It talked about how the Queen wanted to keep her prince locked away in the cellar. Well that explained what she saw in the cellar earlier. This place just got worse and worse.

“Oh, I have too many cookies,” Hat Kid heard the Queen cry. “If only there was someone who was hiding who could come out and help me eat them!”

While the offer of cookies was tempting, Hat Kid knew better. She peeked out the door, slamming it shut when she saw the Queen stalking down the hallway.

“We may just have to make a run for it,” she whispered to the Grimmchild, who was now curled around her shoulders and holding the key. “Get ready. I’ll hold onto the key for now.”

After hyping herself up and checking to make sure the Queen was as far away as possible, Hat Kid took off down the hallways as fast as she could go. She really wished she had the sprint hat right about now!

She was almost at the end of the hallway, ignoring her darkening vision and the icy air around her, until she felt a freezing cold hand grab her arm.

“Got you!” laughed the Queen.

Hat Kid could feel the ice traveling up her arm, and she tried to pull away, but Vanessa’s grip was too strong. This was bad. This was really bad. Was she going to die? The ice had reached her shoulder when she heard a screech, and she looked up to see the Grimmchild spitting the biggest fireball she had ever seen it create directly into the Queen’s face.

The Queen howled in pain, letting Hat Kid go to cover her face. Hat Kid didn’t even look back as she sprinted towards the door, unlocking it, and after making sure the Grimmchild had come through too, slamming it shut behind her. She ran up the stairs, collapsing in front of the chest near the window.

The Grimmchild flew down beside her and next to her face, concerned chirps filling the air.

“I’m okay,” she said slowly, before trying to lift her frozen arm. “At least I think I’m okay. I can’t move my arm.”

She rolled over onto her back, staring up at the attic ceiling.

“You saved me,” she said to the child. “Thank you.”

“Nyeah,” Grimmchild squeaked, as if to say ‘it was no problem, now let’s get out of here!’.

“Yeah, we should go,” Hat Kid said, sitting up. “I gotta get rid of this ice arm though.”

She whacked her arm against the chest as hard as she could, but to her surprise, the ice didn’t shatter. She tried again, but it didn’t work. It must be some sort of magical enchanted ice. Hat Kid really hoped it wouldn’t continue to spread. With her good arm, she opened up the chest, and a timepiece floated out.

At least this trip had been worth it. Had it?

Hat Kid and Grimmchild had returned to the ship, Hat Kid immediately going over to her bed and falling face first into the pillows. Now _that_ had been quite the ordeal.

“I must say, that was quite the close call there.”

Hat Kid sat up, seeing none other than Grimm standing in the center of the room. How did he get in-

“If you’re wondering how I got in, it wasn’t that difficult. Teleporting here is easy for me, and as I can see by the other beings in your ship, I can see that you could also just walk right up to it,” Grimm said, as if reading her mind.

Yeah, she should probably increase the security on the ship! She wouldn’t want anyone to come in and steal all of her timepieces.

“I was afraid I might have to intervene near the end there- I wouldn’t want you or my child getting turned into ice sculptures,” Grimm continued. The Grimmchild was happy to see him, already flying around his head to greet him. “But my child has proved a powerful ally, hasn’t it? Its power is already growing. You’ve done an excellent job thus far.”

She had? Well that was great to hear!

“I believe I can help you with your current… predicament,” Grimm said, motioning to her arm. “While I’m no expert in this land’s magic, my fire is far more powerful than that lost Queen’s ice. Hold out your arm.”

Hat Kid used her good arm to prop up her now icicle-like arm. Grimm held it, and Hat Kid could see small scarlet flames coming out of his hands.

“Ow!” she exclaimed as there was a short flash of pain, as if she had burned herself on the stove. Then the ice started to slowly melt and evaporate out of existence. As soon as all of the ice was gone, Grimm let her arm go.

“Thanks,” Hat Kid said, shaking her arm. It felt all weird now. “I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to get that off on my own.”

“You couldn’t normally,” Grimm said. “But with those timepieces you probably could. They are very powerful in the right hands.”

“I know that already, it’s why everyone's trying to steal them!” Hat Kid told him. “It’s so annoying!”

“Well you don’t have to worry about me stealing them, I have no need for it. The tempting nature of the time pieces does not affect me, and I will not let it affect my troupe.”

It was good to hear that Grimm wasn’t after the time pieces. If he tried to steal them or keep them, it would be a pain to get them back.

“Now, when you feel ready, I hope that you continue to gather the flames,” Grimm said. “Our dance will begin soon, and the crowd is waiting patiently!”

Then he had teleported away again, presumably back to the forest.

“After the manor, I think I need a break,” Hat Kid announced to the Grimmchild. “I’m going to go listen to the Wowl Band thats over in the other room. You can stay here or come with me.”

Of course, it chose to go with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just because Grimmchild is a vessel for the NIGHTMARE HEART doesn't mean it can't be scared! Especially if its friend is in danger. And also because it hasn't fully become the vessel for the heart yet.


	5. Dead Bird Studios

Since she was already in the machine room listening to Wowl, Hat Kid decided to check Dead Bird Studios to see if any of the new flames were there.

“Your song was really cool!” she told the owl band as she walked away. “It really does sound like pumpkin soup!”

Grimmchild teleported up next to her as she looked into the telescope. Sure enough, there was a flame! She hadn’t been to the studio for a while, not since the award ceremony. There were still a couple time rifts she had to fix, but she would do that later.

Hat Kid beamed her and the Grimmchild down to the front entrance of Dead Bird Studios. Good to see that it was brightly lit and populated this time! 

“Hey, you can’t go past this door,” the owl standing in front of the Conductor’s half of the studio said.

Really? After she had starred in both of his movies? Didn’t this owl know who she was? She pointed up at the poster of “Murder on the Owl Express” that was up on the wall.

“Oh! I didn’t realize it was you,” the owl said sheepishly. “I’ll let you right through.”

Hat Kid confidently walked through the doors, the Grimmchild right behind her. At least it wasn’t trying to light the owls on fire.

The studios were mostly empty. Neither of the directors were filming, which would make fighting the Grimmkin a lot easier. Hat Kid could literally walk across the set as she pleased, not having to worry about “owl harassment” or “cactus assault”. She had made it to the elevator when it suddenly dinged, the Conductor stepping out of it.

“Lassie?” he said in disbelief. “What are you doing here? I didn’t expect you to come back after the uh. Incident. And what’s that wee thing flying behind you? A bird?”

“I’m here on very important business!” Hat Kid said, trying to sound cool. “And I’m babysitting this little guy! Isn’t it cute? Also it's not a bird, it's a bug!”

“Really? Because it looks like one of me grandchildren with different colors!” The Conductor said. “What kind of bug is it anyway? Never seen anything like it… could make a pretty cool character in me movies…”

“I don’t know, just a bug I guess,” Hat Kid shrugged. “And no, I’m not gonna be in any more of your movies after I never got paid _and_ nearly got killed, and neither is Grimm Jr!”

“Oh that… that was a paperwork mistake,” the Conductor said, rubbing the back of his neck. “Won’t happen again! I promise! Also I wasn’t the one to try and kill you, I saved your life!”

“I’m not just talking about when DJ Grooves tried to actually murder me, I’m talking about the lava on your train! And the buzzsaws. Why do you even have so many buzzsaws?! I bet nobody has more buzzsaws than you!” Hat Kid complained. “You literally sliced apart some of your beloved train!”

“I wanted the movie to be realistic!” the Conductor said. “And I’d say it was! I would have won the award if it weren’t for the peck neck DJ… Ugh!”

“Where even is he anyway?” Hat Kid asked. Grimmchild had gotten bored, and was now sitting on top of her hat, chewing on one of the spare action figures Hat Kid kept in her hat. 

“Probably off somewhere moping,” the Conductor said with a wave of his hand. “He felt really awful about getting drunk on time power or whatever and disappeared after you left.”

“Yeah, the time pieces do that to a person,” Hat Kid said. “If you were exposed to the time pieces as much as he was, I bet you’d do the same thing.”

“What!” the Conductor gasped, offended. “I would not!”

“Would to!” Hat Kid said. “I know the timepieces better than you!”

“Whatever,” he grumbled. “So where are you going? It’s my studio, you can’t just wander around without a care.”

“That way,” Hat Kid said, pointing in the direction the arrow was taking her. “Hey, you’re in charge, can you take me on a shortcut?’

“I guess so,” the Conductor sighed, walking onto that moving cart thing Hat Kid didn’t know the name of. “Come on, lassie.”

Hat Kid eagerly followed, keeping an eye out for the torch. As they moved, she didn’t see anything yet until…

“Wait wait wait, stop here!” she quickly said, nudging the Conductor in the arm. “Stop the cart!”

“Okay okay!” the Conductor snapped, hitting the switch. Hat Kid jumped off, running over to the torch, her umbrella drawn.

“What are you even doin- AGH what is that??” the Conductor yelled, seeing the Grimmkin teleport in. 

“Don’t worry about it!” Hat Kid called, as both she and the Grimmchild prepared to fight. This one was different. It was a lot bigger, and now there were more fireballs! Not a problem! She could still do this!

“Lassie! You’re going to set my pecking studio on fire!” the Conductor continued to yell. “Get that thing out of here!”

“I said don’t worry about it!” Hat Kid replied, narrowly dodging a fireball. “It won’t burn anything! Except me.”

The Conductor did not stop worrying, but eventually his director side took over as he grabbed a nearby camera and started filming.

“I have no idea what kind of movie this could be but I’m getting this footage anyway!” he laughed. At least he wasn’t yelling anymore. 

With a well timed spit from Grimmchild, the Grimmkin burst into flames. 

“Easy as pie!” Hat Kid said, patting the Grimmchild on the head.

“Okay Lassie,” the Conductor started to say calmly, before going back to yelling. “WHAT THE PECK WAS THAT?!”

“A Grimmkin- hey wait, I can show you the little pamphlet I have!” Hat Kid said digging through her pockets and taking out the papers. “Ooh! This one’s called a Grimmkin Master!’

There was another poem too! Hat Kid would read this one too.

“A spark of red lights darkest dream, scarlet nightmares bright and wild,” Hat Kid read. “Vision dance and flames do speak, burn the father, feed the child. Oh yikes.”

The Conductor seemed unimpressed.

“That last part isn’t part of the poem.”

“That explains nothing to me!”

“Fine, I’ll give you the short story,” Hat Kid said. “So basically I found this weird torch in the middle of Subcon Forest- you know, that haunted forest nearby? Anyway I found it and the Snatcher, whose a stinky, purple ghost, wanted me to get rid of it but I lit it instead and it summoned a guy called Grimm and his friends, and Grimm made me babysit his child and I had to run around and collect flames for the ritual.”

“You know what? I’ll just leave it at that,” the Conductor sighed. “And you went to that haunted forest? Surprised to see you back here alive then, they say all who go there never return.”

“It’s not so bad,” Hat Kid shrugged. Except for the manor. She wouldn’t tell the Conductor about that.

“Anyway…” the Conductor said. “Can you summon that thing again? Just asking.”

“No, I’m not gonna be in your movies!” Hat Kid said. “Unless you pay me for real! And if you want the Grimmkin back so badly go find Grimm and talk to him yourself!”

The Conductor looked like he was legitimately considering it.

“I’m going to leave now, tell DJ Grooves hi,” Hat Kid then said, not wanting to be tricked into being in another movie for free. 

“You can go say hi to that peck neck yourself! If you can find him,” the Conductor said angrily.

“Bye!” Hat Kid said cheerfully, her and Grimmchild disappearing from the Conductor’s sight.

“It was nice to see the Conductor again, even if he was yelling the whole time,” Hat Kid said to the Grimmchild once she was back on her ship. “I should show you the movies I was in! I almost died!”

She had copies of each of the movies she had been in. Funny how they remembered to send her those but not to pay her… Whatever, she had plenty of pons. And plenty of the paper slips the Empress had “paid” her in. Oh speaking of her, she wondered if there were any flames in the metro? Ooh and if she got to go there she could even get some of that delicious food from the trucks… she sure hoped there was a flame there!

“Have you ever been on a metro train before?” she asked the child, putting on her dweller mask and heading towards the storage room. “I’ve only ran on top of one. It’s pretty cool!”

After she had gone through the barricade, Hat Kid switched to her ice hat and went down the manhole. Kicking past all the paper notes, Hat Kid looked into the telescope. A flame! Yes!

“There’s a flame here!” she announced to the Grimmchild. “I hope you’re ready to ride a metro train!”


	6. Nyakuza Metro

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one’s a little short, but I’m making up for it with the next chapter. And also the intermission! Sorry this took a month, I got VERY distracted with various things.

“Stick close to me, okay?” Hat Kid asked once they had gotten to the metro. “I know you can teleport to me but I don’t want you getting lost, this place is huge!”

First things first, she was stopping by a food truck. What? She was hungry! 

“So what’ll it be?” the cat at the register sighed, sounding tired.

“One hamburger, some soup dumplings, french fries, and two juice boxes please!” Hat Kid said, handing over the pons. The cat handed her the food, and she jogged over to the nearby table.

“You can sit on the table since you’re too small to be in the chair,” Hat Kid said, setting down the food. “Do you want the hamburger or the dumplings? The fries are for sharing.”

Grimmchild had definitely picked the dumplings, chomping down on one and consuming it in one bite. Good, Hat Kid liked the hamburgers more.

“The juice box is also for you,” she said, poking the straw into the box for it. It didn’t have any hands to do it itself. “Don’t eat the box too.”

The Grimmchild continued to wolf down the dumplings as Hat Kid ate her hamburger.

“This food and the ones Cooking Cat make are the only food on this planet that taste good,” Hat Kid said in between bites. “The Mafia are terrible at cooking, even looking at it was enough to let me know that, and when I looked at the menu on the Conductor’s train it was GROSS!! I don’t want to eat a rat!”

The Grimmchild looked like it would be perfectly fine with eating a rat. To each their own.

“Okay, before we go anywhere, I gotta explain some stuff to you,” Hat Kid said, grabbing a few french fries. “If we end up getting a timepiece too, there's going to be some mean cats who take it. Don’t attack them- although I wish we could, but I don’t want the whole Nyakuza chasing after us. I’m supposed to be collecting them for this other mean cat.”

Hat Kid had no idea if Grimmchild understood that at all, it just kept staring at her with its dark eyes. 

“Just don’t attack anyone,” Hat Kid then said, finishing the last of the french fries.

The next flame was a difficult find. The metro was a winding and confusing place, and even the arrow pointing her in the right direction didn’t help. Hadn’t Hat Kid been through this place at least twice before?

The arrow kept pointing down, and Hat Kid combed the entirety of the unlocked parts of the metro for any manhole to descend into.

“Finally!” she groaned in exasperation after she jumped down the manhole, spotting the flame nearby. Unfortunately for her, the flame appeared to be on one of the circling trains. This would be annoying. 

Donning her timestop hat, Hat Kid lept into the top of the train, the next grimmkin teleporting into view. 

As the train moved, there were electric signs she kept having to dodge, and unfairly, the grimmkin seemed to pass right through them! Why would she get knocked off the train but not that thing?! Stupid rules. At least her timestop hat was helping a lot, letting her get several hits in before the grimmkin teleported away. The Grimmchild wasn’t having any problem keeping up, but it was constantly teleporting close to her. Hat Kid hoped it wasn’t too exhausting for the poor thing.

“About time that happened!” she snapped after grimmkin exploded into flames. She was then promptly hit by a neon sign, flying off of the train with incredible speed.

“Ow,” Hat Kid grumbled, getting up off of the metro floor. She switched back to her regular hat as the Grimmchild teleported back to her. “Y’know, I think I’d like to buy another snack.”

Thanks to the array of food trucks, it wasn’t long before Hat Kid had gotten a slice of cake for herself, and some cookies for Grimmchild. Even though it hadn’t gotten hurt, it would be rude to not give anything to them.

“Hey, that looks like a timepiece shard,” she commented as she walked, biting the fork that came with the cake in half. She picked it up, it was still wet with timepiece juice. “Oh great, one must have broken down here or something. You think you could help me find the rest?”

The Grimmchild dipped its head, which meant yes, it would. 

With both of them working together, it was easy to assemble the pieces. Hat Kid didn’t even have to pull off a tricky jump to get that shard that was floating in the air, Grimmchild instead flying up to get it.

“Nice! Good thing this doesn’t need any glue,” Hat Kid commented as the shards came together, reforming into a complete (but a little cracked) time piece. “I’m surprised nothing bad happened down here, but one little timepiece breaking isn’t so bad.”

Before she could pocket the time piece, two cats stepped out of the shadows.

“You know the deal, kid,” the one holding the baseball bat said. “Hand it over.”

Ugh why were they everywhere! Were they following her across the metro? So annoying.

Hat Kid grumbled as she tossed the timepiece over. She would steal them all back eventually. The Grimmchild did not like this, and despite Hat KId explicitly telling it not to earlier, it began to attack with fire.

“Well, I certainly didn’t expect this.”

Hat Kid was standing in front of the Empress’s counter, the Grimmchild pin held in her hand. She had taken it off, she didn’t want to risk it attacking the Empress too.

“Due to your little pet killing one of my cats, I’ll have to take some of your cut of the money away,” the Empress said, her tail slowly waving back and forth. “No, I’m not going to fire you over one incident like this, you’re a useful thing.”

“Sorry,” Hat Kid mumbled. That went better than she expected, she thought that there would be a whole fight or something. If the Empress was just taking away some of the paper she got, that really wasn’t bad at all.

“Keep collecting those timepieces for me,” the Empress continued. “And _don’t_ bring your pet with you.”


End file.
